Greenwich Entertainment Sets Table For Theatrical Release Of ‘Food And Country,’ From Director Laura Gabbert, Producer Ruth Reichl

EXCLUSIVE: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to the documentary Food and Country, a collaboration between acclaimed best-selling author Ruth Reichl and award-winning director Laura Gabbert. See the exclusive trailer below.

The film, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, will begin its theatrical run on October 2 at IFC Center in New York. Reichl, a chef and restaurant critic whose books include Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise and Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, produced the documentary along with Gabbert, Caroline Libresco, Paula Perez Manzanedo, and Lisa Remington. Gabbert’s directing credits include City of Gold, about the late food writer Jonathan Gold, and Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles about chef-restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi.

“In the throes of the pandemic, Reichl grew concerned about the fate of small farmers, ranchers, and chefs who were wrestling with both immediate and systemic challenges of a flawed food system,” notes a description of the film. “Reaching across geographic and cultural divides, she follows the unfolding stories of ranchers in Kansas and Georgia, farmers in Nebraska, Ohio, and the Bronx, a New England fisherman, and maverick chefs in big cities all fighting in different ways to survive an ever-consolidating food industry subsidized by long standing government policies. As Reichl witnesses them navigate these difficult circumstances, she shares pieces of her own life, and in doing so, begins to take stock of the path she has traveled and the youthful ideals she fears she has left behind. As each character’s story comes into focus, it becomes clear that how we make and grow our food tells us who we are as a country.”

Greenwich co-president Edward Arentz said in a statement, “Food and Country is a stirring, hopeful road trip of a documentary about food, fairness and community with a cast of inspiring innovators who care passionately about what they do, not the least of whom are the filmmakers themselves.”

“We’re delighted to be teaming up with Greenwich Entertainment to bring Food and Country to audiences,” Gabbert said. “In this charged moment, it invites us to understand and appreciate the independent food producers across America who not only bridge urban-rural divides, but provide solutions for our broken food system.”

The system in the U.S. is broken, Gabbert and Reichl say, for a number of reasons. “We don’t grow much food. We grow mostly commodities. So we are not a country that could feed itself in a real crisis,” Reichl told Deadline at the Sundance Film Festival. “It is broken because the way that we produce food is destroying the land, destroying the air, is a brutal system destroying people. It has destroyed rural America. And, most importantly, it is destroying our health. Six in 10 Americans have chronic diseases that are food related. That all comes back to the way we produce food.”

Among the participants in the film is Bren Smith, who went from being a fisherman to an “ocean farmer.”

“He was a commercial fisherman for years,” Gabbert told Deadline at Sundance. “He fished the world and I think he realized how extractive that process was. And he discovered farming kelp. What he says is, ‘It doesn’t swim away. It’s easy to farm.’”

Smith writes at Greenwave.org, “After the cod stocks crashed in my home of Newfoundland, I was face-to-face with the reality that there would be no jobs on a dead planet. So I went on a journey of ecological redemption. I’ve made many mistakes along the way, but ended up in Long Island Sound, farming a mix of seaweeds and shellfish. These crops hit the climate sweet spot, requiring no fresh water, fertilizer, or feed—while sequestering carbon, rebuilding reefs, and creating economic opportunities for coastal communities hard hit by climate change.”

Innovators like Smith make Food and Country an ultimately optimistic film. “I think it’s one of the reasons why we chose to focus on [food] producers,” Reichl said, “because for the people that we actually ended up telling their stories, during Covid they all found some way to change the system for themselves. And, so, these are all stories of hope.”

In addition to Sundance, Food and Country screened at SXSW, Hot Docs, the Cleveland International Film Festival, and the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, among other festivals in the U.S. and internationally.

Food and Country was made in partnership with Foothill Productions and Real Lava. The documentary is directed by Laura Gabbert and produced by Ruth Reichl, Laura Gabbert, Caroline Libresco, Paula Perez Manzanedo, and Lisa Remington. Impact and community engagement work is led by Michael Bracy, Policy in Focus and Jon Reiss, 8 Above.

LA-based Range Select handled world sales and Greenwich’s Ed Arentz negotiated the acquisition with Range’s Jessica Lacy and Oliver Wheeler on behalf of the filmmakers.

Watch the Food and Country trailer below.